Process of producing page printing plates



PROCESS OF PRODUCING PAGE PRINTING PLATES Original Filed June 50. 1926 311a i llrilmm meniw /f%U ju/W Zisfliftorneys Patented Jan. 7, 1930 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE ROY V. GRAVES, OF MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA ASSIGNOR, BY DIRECT AND MESNE ASSIGNMENTS, TO THE GRAVES PROCESS, INC., OF MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA, A

CORPORATION OLE DELAWARE PROCESS OF PRODUCING PAGE PRINTING PLATES Application filed June 30, 1926, Serial No. 119,761.

My invention has for its object to provide a new and economical process for the production of page printing plates, suitable for printing composition in parallel columns, divided into paragraphs, if so desired; and which process eliminates hand set type, machine set type, machine cast and set type or machine cast and set slugs.

The particular invention herein disclosed and claimed involves the basic process disclosed and claimed in my pending application S. N. 115,129, filed June 10, 1926, entitled Process of producing printing plates; and in carrying out the process herein disclosed and claimed, I employ a transparent make-up plate of the kind disclosed and claimed in my application S. N. 119,762, filed June 30, 1926, and, allowed June 11, 1927.

The accompanying drawing illustrates one of the two forms of transparent make-up plates illustrated in my said allowed application S. N. 119,7 62, above referred to, and which is suitable for use in carrying out one of the steps of the process herein disclosed and claimed; and in said sheet of drawings, Fig. 1 is a plan view of an integral transparent make-up plate, preferably of glass; Fig. 2 is a vertical section on the line 22 of Fig. 1 on a much larger scale, to-wit, about 3 to 1, this being substantially full size of the plate; and Fig. 3 is a horizontal section on the line 33 of Fig. 1, on the same enlarged scale as Fig. 2.

This transparent make-up plate 4 is of suflicient size to hold all the master sheets of composition, hereinafter referred to, which may be required or desired for a whole page of a newspaper or other publication. Said plate 4 is provided on its face with a series of properly spaced column demarking grooves 5, countersunk therein, parallel with each other and extending from near the top to the bottom of the plate; and it is also provided with a. series of paragraph demarking grooves 6 countersunk therein, disposed parallel with each other and running crosswise of the plate at right angles to the column demarking grooves 5. Of said column demarking grooves 5, there will be as many thereof on the face of the plate as there Renewed March 23, 1929.

will be columns in the page of the newspaper or other publication intended to be printed.

Of the paragraph demarking grooves 6, there will be enough on the face of the plate to provide for the demarking or distinguishing of all the paragraphs of composition intended to appear on the printed sheet. In other words, the face of said plate 4 will contain many more of the paragraph demarking grooves 6 than would likely be used for any single page of composition. The purpose of this excess number of said grooves 6 is to afford selective locations to fit the paragraphs of the composition of the master sheets for any given page of printed matter.

I will first describe my present invention as I carry it out in its preferred form.

As the first step, I produce a translucent master sheet containing the desired composition in opaque impressions. A good quality of white bond paper is suitable for the purpose; and one way of getting the opaque impressions of the composition is by writing out the composition with the use of a typewriter on the face of the sheet of bond paper with a carbon faced to the back of the bond paper, which will have the effect of producing the composition right side up on the face of the sheet of bond paper and reversed on the back of said sheet of bond paper; and when this has been done one suitable form of translucent master sheet will be available.

It is a matter of convenience also to produce, at the same time, on the typewriting machine, a proof of the composition. which can be readily done by placing an additional carbon against the face of an additional copv sheet of paper behind the first carbon above noted.

The Hammond typewriting machine is well adapted for use in producing this master sheet.

The special reason for producing the composition right side up on the face of the master sheet and reversed on the back of said master sheet is to get sufliciently opaque impressions of the composition to intercept rays of light which would otherwise pass through the sheet. It follows, of course,that

' application.

it might be possible to get suificiently opaque impressions of the composition on the face of said master sheet, without requiring the reversed impressions of the composition on the back of said sheet, assuming that the proper kind of typewriting machine with the proper kind of properly inked ribbon should be employed. The essential point is that the impressions must be opaque.

The next or second step is the securing of as many of said translucent master sheets as may be required or desired for a single page of printed matter to a transparent makeup plate 4. The said master sheets sufficient for a page of printed matter can be readily secured to such a make-up glass plate by ordinary paste and the grooves in the face of the plate, above noted, are of great help in properly positioning the said master sheets on said make-up plate.

The next or third step, broadly considered, is the transferring of the composition of the master sheets on said make-up plate 4 to the face of a suitable metallic plate. This can be accomplished by the steps of treatment specified in my foundation case S. N. 115,129, filed June 10th, 1926, there specified as the second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth steps of the process there disclosed. Otherwise stated, an ordinary zinc or copper plate is provided having its face sensitized with a material which is normally soluble in water but can be made insoluble in water by exposure to light; then the master sheet is applied to the sensitized face of said plate and subjected to a strong light, such as an electric are light, whereby said sensitized material on the surfaces of said plate not covered by the opaque impressions of the master sheet will be rendered insoluble in water by the action of the rays of light thereon. The rays of light cannot pass through the portions of the master sheet occupied by the opaque impressions and, hence, the sensitized material on the surfaces of the plate covered by said opaque impressions remain'soluble in water. To get a negative stereotype suitable for printing in relief, reading side up, the said master sheet must be applied to said plate with the face.

of the composition downward. Then the sensitizing material is removed from the surfaces of said plate which had been covered by the opaque impressions of the master sheet, which can readily be done by washing the plate in water, thereby leaving said surfaces exposed. .Theh said exposed surfaces of said stereotyping plate are covered with a material which will resist the chemicals used in the last two steps of the process disclosed in that Ordinary printers ink will serve the purpose and can readily be applied with a suitable inking roller. Thenthe sensitized material is removed from the surfaces of said plate which had not been covered by the opaque impressions of the master sheet,

which can readily be done by swabbing the platlze with a dilute solution of hydrochloric aeic The fourth or last step of my present process is the etching off from the face of said metallic plate all the surfaces thereof not corresponding to the composition of the master sheet. For this etching step of the process I preferably employ the etching machine and process disclosed in U. S. Patent 1,422,977, granted of date January 23rd, 1923, to Edward G. Schwuchow and George S. Johnstone, wherein an alkaline solution is employed as the electrolyte of the electrolytic bath.

lVhen the page printing plate comes from the last step of the process above stated, it is obvious that it is in flat form and that it could be used in said flat form on some kinds of printing presses; but for newspaper work said printing plate would be curved into halfcylinder form, by the suitable application of pressure thereto, and then be mated by another similar plate for the formation of a complete or nearly complete cylinder adapted to be applied and used on the cylinders of the ordinary newspaper printing press, in the same Way as the half-cylinder plates cast in the usual way from matrix molds. Of course, it will be understood that the page printing plate as it comes from the last step of my above described process will also have to be trimmed, for getting the needed bevelled edges and so forth.

In the foregoing statement, the word composition has been used and is hereinafter used in the claims of this case in a broad sense to cover and include not only reading matter but impressions made from cuts, halftones or electro-plates, for use in association with the reading matter or independently of the reading matter. As typewriting machines are now made, however, as far as I know, I cannot get directly therefrom a master sheet for cut-impressions. Hence, I get such a master sheet from a wood-cut, a halftone or an electro-plate made in the usual way and then handle that master sheet in the same way as I handle the reading matter master sheet obtained directly from the typewriter. \Vhen the cut master sheets have thus been obtained, they can be associated with the reading master sheets throughout all the steps of thcprocess above stated, and the final result will be a page printing plate adapted to print the reading matter and the cut matter in association with each other.

Ofcourse, itwill be understood that the reading composition of the master sheet produced on the ordinary typewriting machine would not, of necessity be perfectly justified. A rough justification could be secured by an advance alarm on the typewriting machine which would call the operators attention, at the proper time, to the remaining line space available, so he could spread or crowd the last words of the line of the composition. If, however, perfect justification should be desirable, it could be secured by making the original composition of the read ing matter on a typewriting machine having a line-space counter which would show the shortage or excess of space needing distribution to get justification, and then making a second copy from this original measured copy on the typewriting machine in which second copy the space would be so distributed between the words of the line as required to secure justification.

On comparison with the processes disclosed in my said above identified previous application it will be seen that I add one important feature or step, towit the transparent makeup plate containing all the master sheets needed for a single page of printed matter and thereafter handle all those master sheets on the said make-up plate and thus get a page printing plate suitable for printing the entire page of a paper, periodical or other publication.

I preferably employ a glass or transparent make-up plate 4 so that the presence of this make-up plate 4, to which the master sheets are pasted, will not interfere with the passage of the rays of light through the translucent portions of the master sheet in the third step of my process. Then I provide the column demarking grooves 5 and the paragraph demarking grooves 6 countersunk in the face of the glass plate to facilitate the make-up or assembly of the master sheets on the plate, in proper positions, and distinguish the columns from each other and the paragraphs of the columns from each other. If it is desired to have the columns separated by blank lines, it is only necessary to rule in ink into these column grooves of the plate with a ruling pen and the stereotype will then have a raised or line printing surface. Same remarks apply in respect to the paragraph demarking grooves; or in other words, if it is desired to have the paragraphs separated by black lines, the corresponding grooves of the plate are inked with a ruling pen.

Otherwise than in the respects above named, my make-up plate corresponds to the chase or final assembly form used in printing offices, and the master sheets take the place of the type, cuts and so forth.

The practicability of my process herein disclosed and claimed has been demonstrated by the successful actual usage thereof for the purpose intended.

Collectively considered, by the process disclosed in my previously filed application and the process herein disclosed, the economy effected in the production of newspapers wherein linotype machines were formerly employed is over 50%; and if comparison should be made with newspapers employing hand set type, the economy would be much larger.

Respecting the transparent make-up page plate 4 above referred to, it should be noted that it does not need to be integral but may be sectional. In other words, instead of a single glass plate of a size to hold, proper ly assembled, all the master sheets of composition needed for a page of printed matter, it may be made up of glass sections so constructed that they may be closely jointed together when clamped in a chase. The usage of such a sectional form of make-up plate is advantageous and desirable for handling display ads; for the controlling reason that it enables proofs of individual ads to be furnished to the advertisers from the master sheets for said ads (by blue printing the same from said master sheets) in advance of making the general assembly of all the master sheets on the makeup page plate, and then, if the advertisers make corrections or changes in their respective ads, it is only necessary to correct the master sheets of their ads before mounting on the makeup plate. Each glass section of the makeup plate for example, might be devoted to a particular advertiser. Then these glass sections could be shifted as desired, in the make-up or assembly of the glass sections in the chase, so as to give any desired relative positions to the different ads of the different advertisers.

This transparent make-up page plate, in both of its forms is my invention and is made the subj ect matter of a companion application for U. S. Patent, executed of even date herewith, filed contemporaneously with this case, on June 30, 1926, under Serial Number 119,762.

What is claimed is:

1. The process of producing page printing plates, which process includes the follow ing steps, towit: (a) producing master sheets having thereon the desired composition in opaque impressions, the remaining portions of the respective sheets being translucent; (b) securing all of said master sheets desired for a single page to a transparent make-up plate; (0) transferring the composition of the master sheets on the make-up plate to the face of a metallic plate; (d) etching off from the face of said metallic plate all the face surfaces thereof not corresponding to said composition of the master sheets.

2. The process of producing page printing plates for printing pages of composition in parallel columns divided into paragraphs, which process includes the following steps, towit: (at) producing master sheets having thereon the desired composition in opaque impressions, the remaining portions of the respective sheets being translucent; (6) securing all the said master sheets desired for v a single page to the face of a transparent make-up plate having countersunk in its face parallel column demarking grooves and parallel paragraph demarking grooves at right angles to the column demarking grooves; (v0) transferring the composition of said master sheets as fixed together on the make-up plate to the face of a metallic plate; (cl) etching ofl from the face of said metallic plate all the face surfaces thereof not corresponding to said composition of the master sheets as fixed together on said make-up plate.

In testimony whereof I afiix my signature.

' ROY V. GRAVES. 

